Theatrical
and Media Make-up Artistry, Props Design, and Other Theatrical Arts
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| Passage Theatre Company in Trenton hosted
the world premiere production of "Cecilia's Last Tea Party," a
fantastical and mysterious coming of age play. From left to right:
Robert Wu
(Colonel Krakatoa),
with Toba the two-headed frog; Indika Senanayake (the Dark Shadow),
with DoDo
the pelican; Nitya Vidyasagar (Cecilia), with DaDa the tiger; and Amy
Kin Waschke (Aunt Tambora). Photo
by Cie Stroud. |
| Theatrical
productions call for all sorts of things to be made, from meals that look good enough to eat (but never are) to peddler's carts to giant magical pumpkins to ordinary items in the living rooms of ordinary people... |
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Since the earliest days of show business, props and make-up people were commonly one and the same. In terms of using art to span the gap between reality and imagination, the fields are substantially related. Artist Erin Penney has made a great variety of props for various uses, from enhancing theatrical productions to helping in the demonstration of products sold on QVC. This page shows some of her wares. |
| In the photo above,
the cast of the
world
premiere production of “Cecilia’s Last Tea Party” at Passage Theatre
Company, Trenton, NJ, May - June 2008. Passage is a professional
theatre company that specializes in the development of new works by
both established and emerging playwrights. Erin assisted Props Designer Dani Constance Pietrowski in building and cosmetically dressing this play's special animal puppet props as well as in creating the production's more ordinary props, all of which combine to tell an intricate and unusual story. |
"You don’t see a lot of puppets having afternoon tea. But DoDo and DaDa have a standing invitation in 'Cecilia’s Last Tea Party,' a modest but ravishing new piece of theater well served by the Passage Theater Company’s production in Trenton. DoDo is a handsome pelican with a deep voice who repeatedly announces, “I’m only stupid on land.” DaDa is a Bengal tiger with a high voice who keeps insisting that she’s just been to the jungle and eaten a rabbit. They’re both adorable, but are they really puppets, as advertised? Indika Senanayake, who plays the character known as the Dark Shadow, manipulates them by hand, externally, so they’re really just flexible stuffed animals. (Imagine picking up a teddy bear and making it wave bye-bye.) But as the story unfolds, this insistent simplicity reinforces the child’s-eye view of the world, which sometimes sits right on the edge of magic."-- New York Times |
| Marie Thomas, Scott Price, Gerard Catus,
and Krystel Lucas in "The
Summer House," a dark comic thriller given its world premiere
production by the Passage Theatre Company in October 2008. Photo by Cie
Stroud. |
| Erin was asked to be
the Props Designer for a new play called "The Summer House," which
enjoyed a handsome debut mounting on the stage of the Passage Theatre
Company's Mill Hill Theatre in Trenton. From acquiring items as
seemingly mundane as coasters and barware for an upscale Manhattan
apartment, to the details of decor within a summer home in the
Catskills, each prop element had a different aspect of the story to
tell. Among the items Erin was asked to create was the packaging for a
non-existent computer-based video game that figured into the plot line,
and the cover art for a music CD recorded by one of the characters in
the show's story. |
| "'The Summer House' is neatly
calculated to be both mystifying and
satisfying." -- CurtainUp.com |
Erin designs and build props for all kinds of theatrical needs, and is also an experience scenic artist. From painting things appearing in productions of the McCarter Theatre Company in Princeton, NJ, to creating the rustic woodgrain on the front door of a stage set at a local private high school, to carving a roast goose out of styrofoam, to creating a display to sell replicas of vintage tin toys on national TV, Erin has been called on to fill the props needs of a range of projects. |
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Need
mad props? Or even ordinary ones? Please
call or e-mail to discuss your needs.
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